


Dubious Life

by RougueShadowWolf



Series: 15 Minutes [221]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Abduction, Allison Argent & Stiles Stilinski Are Twins, F/M, Sad Chris Argent, Stiles Stilinski is an Argent
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-17
Updated: 2019-09-29
Packaged: 2020-10-20 17:02:33
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,355
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20678843
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RougueShadowWolf/pseuds/RougueShadowWolf
Summary: Victoria had lost sight of her son for but a moment, but it was long enough for some wicked soul to come and take her son, leaving their family broken and her husband unable to accept the loss they'd suffered.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> So, you think you want a story, little one? Very well, but let us be quiet, so the monster under your bed does not wake. 
> 
> Ah, friends and familiars who know this series oh so well, please hurry on to the section marked as A SLIGHT CHANGE, for I will proceed now to explain to the newcomers what this series is about. Welcome dearest fresh-faced one who has stumbled into my realm of stories, I wish to open your pretty eyes to some things regarding this series and the story it holds, such as that these stories are my payment to a group of ghoulish friends; each story is written in 15Minutes and once that time has passed I present my story to them, now due to time restrictions these tales aren’t works of art, the storytelling is chaotic at best and at worst ripe with mistakes in the shape of grammar and typos. Now that you have been introduced to this series, I will encourage those of you unable to handle badly written stories to leave and be at peace; however, if you still wish to continue on with this journey, then follow me to A SLIGHT CHANGE. 
> 
> A SLIGHT CHANGE has come about, and this change is a Theme. The Theme now is Twins, yes, twins. ThankTheTreesAndTheBees wanted a story where Stiles is Allison’s twin brother Bernard, who gets abducted by a crazy lady when they are just little kids.

Victoria had for as long as she could remember lived under certain expectations, pushed and raised to be a peculiar way, and not once had she thought of being anything different from the person her parents groomed her to be. She married a man who had been like she had been raised and groomed to be what their parents and grandparents had been, and naturally it was expected from them to have children of their own and raise these children to be exactly what their parents were; there were traditions and histories to be upheld and kept alive, and so to marry and have children was expected as much as killing a werewolf was.

On their wedding day Victoria hadn’t loved Christopher, and he most certainly hadn’t loved her, not that either one of them married for love and Victoria on her part never imagined she would ever love Christopher deeply in that way which would not make him expendable.

Finding the right time to settle down, to breed, wasn’t easy especially since Victoria lacked any real desire to surrender a great chunk of her life to motherhood, but eventually she and her husband caved under the increased pressure to have a child; and most of all Victoria had grave concerns of Chris sister possibly convincing everyone she was incapable of giving an heir to the Argent-family, thus making her right to be the head of the Argent’s questionable.

Having a child was something Victoria had to do, but that didn’t say it had to come easily for her or her husband, which was made clear by the many years they kept trying and failing, forcing them to eventually turn to IVF. Victoria found the whole process of IVF rather humiliating made worse no doubt the moment Kate learned of it, every snide remark of her sister-in-law and her sneering father-in-law made was a test of her sanity and will; thankfully Chris was there, offering what little support he could, and going as far as taking the blame for their fertility problems even though the problem had been more due to the failures of her body than his.

When Victoria had been recommended to have more than one embryo planted inside her, she’d never imagined that it would result in her expecting twins, since she couldn’t imagine twins, but while she imagined one of the embryos taking and the other not, Chris did entertain the thought of twins far more open-mindedly than she did; and so when Victoria later found out that she was expecting twins, she’d felt a little uneasy about having twins, not simply due to the strain it would put her body, but also due to the extra work it would take to care of two babies at the same time.

But while Victoria worried about how two babies, at the same time, was double the work and double the trouble, Chris had been overjoyed and she’d need but look at him as his whole focus were on the grainy images of two little hears still beating inside two tiny bodies not yet formed into a proper human shape, to she need but look at Chris to know he’d love and care for them when she eventually failed to do so.

The pregnancy wasn’t an easy one for Victoria, her body and mind in constant battle with the lives growing inside her, and there was more than once a time she in a moment of privacy cursed her misery, and even went as far as to beg God to abort any of the children that might be a boy since a girl was all she wanted or needed.

Victoria hated, absolutely hated, every minute of being pregnant. Chris of course sensed this and went all out on trying to make her as comfortable and happy as possible, never judging her for her negativity.

The only time she caught Chris be disappointed or disapprove of her actions was during the scan that finally answered the most pressing of Victoria’s concerns, when her doctor informed her that baby A was a girl she’d felt herself smile for the first-time and she gave Chris hand a gentle squeeze while breathing out a loud, `Thank God. ´

However, the moment the doctor informed her happily that baby B was a boy, Victoria had gasped in horror and said, `What? No. Not a boy. ´

Chris didn’t speak to her for days after she answered his question weeks later on why she was so unhappy about having a son, her answer had simply been truthful when she’d said, `A daughter is useful to us. A boy is but a burden, a problem. ´

Once Chris began to speak to her again, he’d made it clear he wouldn’t tolerate her speaking about their son in a negative way once he was born, and she’d been rather shocked by how firm he was about this demand and begrudgingly agreed, although she made it clear the boy would be Chris’ responsibility.

When Victoria went into labour, weeks before her due-date, it was one of the most traumatic-event in her life since she had no control of the situation. While all of her concerns were for the well-being of herself and her daughter, Chris’ were for all three of them.

Although Baby A, later named Allison, was born a little bit on the smaller size she was none the less healthy and strong, the perfect girl for their family, her little brother was born small and fragile as they had been warned he would be, still although Baby B was barely able to breathe Chris had been so convinced that their son wouldn’t leave them.

When Victoria finally was allowed to lay her eyes on their son, it was mostly due to Chris insisting she come and see their son, she was taken aback by how small he truly was, he also seemed properly disgruntled by his surroundings. Victoria wasn’t impressed the slightest with her son, and neither were the rest of their family, for while everyone remarked on how beautiful and strong her daughter was, her son was deemed scrawny and a runt; yet, the runt of the family didn’t simply lay down and surrender to anything, and with each visit and every comment such as, `He’s a proper little fighter this one, ´ Victoria felt something stir in her closed-off heart.

However, it wasn’t until both babies were discharged and home, that Victoria began to notice and to some degree appreciate the subtle differences between her daughter and son. Allison was an easy and happy baby, who slept well and ate well, and who had been incredibly easy to breast feed from the get go. Allison settled easily enough when comforted, there was always a smile to found when it came to Allison. Bernard wasn’t as easy as his sister was, he was rather difficult when it came to feeding and was a restless when it came to sleeping, he would wake-up several times at night not to be changed or to be fed just for the hell of it, but although little Bernard wasn’t an easy baby Victoria grew to care for him be it slowly; still, Allison was her favourite, and all the troubles with Bernard made Victoria love and adore her daughter that little bit more.

Victoria couldn’t really say when she noticed it, but at some point, before Bernard began to move around and explore on his one, and did so long before Allison did, Victoria noticed that there was a difference in the way Allison seemed to look at the world and how Bernard did; Allison appeared to never question anything she saw, while Bernard appeared to ponder everything he heard and saw.

It became clear to her as well as her husband that the moment Bernard could begin to explore the world around him, his mood brightened and he would laugh with excitement whenever he figured out something new, which had Chris joking once, `Now we know why he was such an unhappy baby. He was just bored out of his mind. ´ The only problem with Bernard’s curiosity was all the trips to the emergency room, there wasn’t a crib, a high-chair, a playpen from which their youngest couldn’t escape from, a trait that brought Victoria and Chris grey hairs while it caused Gerard to finally praise the boy.

Allison was the first to start talking, and Victoria was overjoyed when her first word was mama and second dada, Bernard however missed the milestone when it came to speaking, and regardless of how many doctors and professionals they took their son too, the child refused to speak but eventually he did but his first-word wasn’t mama but rather a very loud and happy daddy when Chris came home after going on a hunting trip that took four-days to complete; two weeks later Victoria got to hear her son cry out after her as she left him in timeout, she didn’t rush over to him and hug him the way she’d done with Allison, instead she’d closed the nursery door and walked downstairs to spend some time with Allison, it took over a month before she heard Bernard call her mommy again. 

Being a mother of twins had never seemed as an easy thing to Victoria, and no matter how much she’d done her research on twins and parenting twins, she wasn’t prepared for how truly taxing it was to raise twins, especially when she was expected to raise her daughter to one day take over for her as the leader of the Argents; and she knew deep-down that she failed at balancing her time and her affections between her two children, and the guilt over her failure to treat her son as an equal to Allison did leave her with plenty of sleepless nights.

There were days when Victoria felt like a failure of a mother, especially when she’d lose her patience with Bernard who kept making a mess of his clothes and his toys, and more often than not when she lost it with her son she’d always ask him, `Why can’t you be more like Allison? Why can’t you be as good as your sister? ´ and whenever Chris heard her say these things and argument would follow, one she knew she rightfully deserved.

Victoria loved her daughter, she loved her son too, she did, but sometimes she just found it difficult to love and care for them equally. Victoria loved her children, she really did, but being a mother and a stay at home mother at that wasn’t easy or natural for her. She needed time to breathe, to get away from the house without going to a store, sometimes she just needed to escape the everyday humdrum, and so from time to time she would pack her children into the car and drive to somewhere, often a park far from their house so she could avoid having to talk to other mothers.

They day when everything changed, when her guilt as a parent was to grow tenfold, it started out as any normal day did, be it that Chris was away on another hunting trip and she’d found Bernard alone downstairs that morning which meant she had been stuck cleaning-up the mess he’d made of the plants he’d decided needed investigating; she’d started out her morning by yelling at her son, she’d made him cry before he’d even had breakfast or she’d had her first cup of coffee.

After lunch, Victoria had decided to take her children to one of their favourite parks, thus hoping to maybe break the silent-treatment Bernard was giving her, he refused to even look at her and flinched whenever she touched him. It was a nice warm day, summer was at the door, and the park was green with some flowers already blooming, it was nice and Victoria found some form of freedom and peace there.

She’d known that this particular park and the sandbox there would provide enough of a distraction to keep Allison and her little brother distracted, to keep the two preoccupied long enough for her to relax for a moment and enjoy a ridiculously expensive cup of fancy coffee which she sipped and enjoyed without hurry.

Sitting as far from the other parents as possible, Victoria kept an eye on her twins while enjoying a moments reprieve of motherhood, enjoying the moment of not being needed and drinking a cup of coffee she hadn’t brewed herself, all the while knowing and expecting this magical moment of peace and relative quiet wouldn’t last long since Allison was always in need of her.

There’s a part of Victoria that simply wants to pretend that Allison hadn’t called out to her when her daughter does just that, but Victoria is unable to ignore her daughter who simply wants to be moved over to the swings, with a heavy sigh Victoria heads towards her daughter who adorably smiles at her which in turn causes Victoria to smile.

Victoria picks-up the daughter that smiles up at her and who is reaching out towards her eagerly, throwing a quick glance over at her youngest who sat at the far end of the sandbox, Victoria can’t help but smile fondly at the look of wonder and curiosity plastered upon Bernard’s cute little face; her son was completely unaware of her sister and mother as he watched the butterfly that had landed upon his little bright-yellow spade, and not for the first-time Victoria amuses herself with the thought of what sort of young man her son might’ve become if he’d been born into another family.

Satisfied that Bernard was well and truly distracted, Victoria focuses her attention on Allison who suddenly wants a bit of juice too, it really doesn’t take all that long for Victoria to give her daughter a drink, then without glancing over to where her son Victoria took her daughter over to the swings, half-heartedly listening to Allison’s babbling.

Victoria pushes her daughter on the swing a couple of times, a peculiar sense of unease settling in her gut, this sensation has her turning her attention towards the sandbox.

At first the sight of the yellow spade abandoned in the sandbox doesn’t cause her alarm, she’s used to Bernard going for Allison’s toys whenever her sister abandoned them which often had Victoria ripping dolls from his tiny hands and tiaras off of his head, she turns her attention to the spot where Allison had been playing only to find some snotty nosed boy with too many freckles sitting where she’d expected to find her son.

Not seeing her son in the sandbox sparks an unfamiliar feeling within her, and it takes her a moment to understand what the horrible sensation within her is.

Dread unlike any washes over her mercilessly, her chest feels tight and the heart within it begins to beat in an unfamiliar and dreadful way, it leaves her struggling to breathe and think, it makes it harder for her not to scream like some hysterical woman for her youngest.

Still, although her mind begins to crack with the horror of the situation, Victoria attempts to not give in to the panic that wants to consume her whole, and instead focus on finding her son who might’ve just wandered off to explore something.

Victoria takes a loudly protesting and then crying Allison off the swing and starts to look around the playground, hoping to find her son standing beneath one of the trees and gawking up at a squirrel or gone over to ask an adult what they were reading, watching as a bunch of older-kids were ridding their bikes and trying to play cool and capable to a bunch of girls watching them. Victoria wants to find her son watching and listening to the birds hiding in the shrubs, she wants to find her wide-eyed son playing with some random child he’d decided deserved his company, she wants to find her son petting some dog or exploring some flower or just petting the grassy ground while whispering secrets into the growing grass, but what Victoria finds isn’t what she wants to find.

Bernard is nowhere to be found. Her little boy was nowhere to be seen. He was gone.

Her heart sinks, her entire body goes cold with fear that came from living in the knowledge that the world was full of monsters.

With no sign of her youngest, her son who still had only spoke two words, Victoria begins to panic and begins in earnest to call out the name Chris had chosen for their son since Victoria hadn’t been bothered with naming their son, she calls out his name without any ability or will to control the way Bernard’s name falls from her lips. She’s unable to keep the fear from her voice, the frantic way with which she calls for her youngest shocks Allison silent, the frantic way with which she calls for her special child alerts the other parents and children to something being wrong.

Once others begin to ask what’s wrong, once others share her sense of alarm, a sense of panic she’d never experienced before washed over her. The grave reality of her situation crashing over her mercilessly as strangers come to her aide.

Her son was gone.

She’d lost her son.

It doesn’t take long before people start to search for Bernard, even the group of teens join in, the boys no longer interested in impressing the girls but instead focused on finding her missing child.

A group of mothers, familiar with each other split-up into two groups, one staying behind to look after the children while the rest join the search party, an elderly couple who had been walking their old-dog begin to pray for the safe return of her son.

Victoria didn’t call the police, the though never even crossed her mind, and yet they arrived soon enough.

She’s bombarded with question while she continues to hold on tightly to the one child she hadn’t lost, some questions she’s able to understand are important while others are simply ridiculous and annoying to her. If Victoria was honest, calling the police hadn’t even crossed her frantic mind, not when she considered them useless, after all she was convinced that it wouldn’t be some normal human who’d kidnapped her son, there was no way some human could’ve reached her son without her noticing it.

Instead of calling the police, Victoria had called her father-in-law trusting him and his men to find her son and whatever had taken him. The arrival of the hunters and their dogs gave her comfort and hope, while it caused more than a few eyebrows to rise, Victoria had believed firmly that her son would be found, she however wasn’t entirely convinced he would be found alive and unharmed; and as she watched her father-in-law bark orders at the men who worked under his command, Victoria feared most of all that come nightfall she would have to put her own son down, after all she wouldn’t put it past a werewolf to turn her son in hopes of leverage.

**~*~**

His hands were shaking, the screwdriver unsteady in his hands as he stood ready to take the crib apart, this is the only thing left in the room that had once been Allison’s and Bernard’s nursery, they’d moved Allison out of the room years ago, leaving one half of the room empty while the other had until a few days ago held everything of Bernard’s in its proper place.

Chris has kept the room as it is for all these years, even after Allison moved from a crib to a so-called big girl bed, he’d been unable to take the crib apart or allow Victoria to give Bernard’s clothes and toys away. He knows he’s been irrational about it all, after all his son wouldn’t fit in his crib or clothes by now, hasn’t fit in them for years now, and yet the thought of giving anything away of Bernard’s had felt like giving-up on him completely.

`It’s been years. ´ Chris tells himself, his voice breaking and there are tears once more stinging in his eyes, `It’s been _years_. ´ 

He has to take the crib apart, he’d promised Victoria he’d have it done before she came home with Allison, and considering that Victoria had already packed all of Bernard other things, driven boxes of his things to the women’s shelter the crib was all that was left of a time long since passed.

Chris has to take the crib apart tonight, they would be moving out of their house, moving away from this place in a few days and they couldn’t leave the crib just standing here, empty and forgotten.

_It shouldn’t be this hard_, Chris thinks while he feels himself falling apart.

Chris had reluctantly accepted, with intervention and therapy, that he had stop chasing ghost and do what was right for his daughter, and what was best for Allison was not having to grow-up constantly reminded of the loss they’d suffered.

Allison needed him to stop chasing ghosts, to instead be there for her.

`I’m so sorry. ´ Chris whispers into the silent room as he begins to work on taking Bernard’s bed apart, `I’m so, so, so sorry. ´ he repeats these words over and over until the bed is in pieces, and Victoria finds him sobbing uncontrollably in the corner of the room where the crib once stood.


	2. There's A Familiar Face

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh, I see you’ve come across our small Dragon infestation. I’m so sorry for your hair, but at least you’ll fit-in in these parts. Now, you sit down, and I’ll bring you strong drink and some ointment for your burns. 
> 
> Alrighty, so ThankTheTreesAndTheBees wanted yet another part for this fic, and so she used Stiles is an Argent theme to get her wish, and so here we are. She wanted to see Allison’s first-day in Beacon Hills High School where she comes across Stiles Stilinski, she also wanted to see what would be Chris’ and Victoria’s reaction when she brings-up her classmate.

Moving to a new town or a new city was never fun and easy for her. Moving from one place to another without a say was always stressful and frankly annoying, but starting at a new school was even worse. There was nothing exciting or easy about starting in a new school, and regardless of how many times Allison had already gone through switching schools and trying to make new friends, being a new kid continued to be an awful experience, and if Allison was honest it felt more and more difficult for her to make friends and fit in the older she became.

It was on days like these when she was facing the first-day at a new school, in a town or a city where she knew no one, that Allison really wished she’d had someone to share this unpleasant experience with. On days like this when she stood alone facing a new school full of people she didn’t know, Allison found herself wishing she had her twin-brother at her side.

Allison didn’t think about her brother all that often, she couldn’t even say she remembered him because she really didn’t remember Bernard. What she knew about him was what her father told her about her twin, the only images she had of her brother were bound to photographs and short clips of a brother that felt as distant to her as other family members she’d never met but who were bound to her family tree.

Most of the time, aside from her birthday or Christmas when her mother’s smile never reached her eyes that turned sorrowful on those days when she seemed to feel the loss of her son as strongly as Allison’s father did, Allison didn’t spare a thought on her brother. It was hard not remember the missing piece of her family on the anniversary of Bernard’s disappearance since her father would turn grim and silent for days, doing his best to hide his tears and to avoid sparking arguments about his unwillingness to move on with her grandfather and aunt as well as her mother. Everyone was walking on eggshells on the anniversary of Bernard’s disappearance, and still each anniversary ended with her parents arguing about how her dad needed to move on; and Allison did at times wish her father would just move on, to let go of the ghost of her brother, but she also knew that her dad couldn’t give-up on Bernard, not as long as Bernard remained lost.

Although she didn’t think about her brother all that often, and although she wished her dad would face the sad reality that Bernard was gone, dead, Allison still had enough heart to also wish that her brother had never disappeared. There were moments when she would wish her mother hadn’t taken them to the park that day, even if that would’ve probably caused some other family to suffer through the hell her family continued to suffer through. She’d entertained the idea of what her life might’ve been if her grandfather or the police had found her brother that day, or a few days later, and often she wished that things had turned out differently for her parents and family.

Allison doesn’t think her life would’ve been perfect with a brother at her side, and she imagined they would’ve argued and fought like the siblings of her few friends did, but having Bernard around would’ve still been more comforting than facing the world alone as a single-child.

Breathing in a slow breath, doing her absolute best to get a grip on her nerves as she walked into Beacon Hills High School, Allison wished that she wouldn’t make a fool of herself on her first-day, she’d learned that first-impressions mattered a great deal regardless of the size of the school.

Checking for the seventh-time which class she was meant to be at and then navigating the school she’d been shown around by a teacher a few days ago, her dad asking way too many questions distracting the teacher as well as Allison and so she had to rely on her map more than she would’ve liked to admit. Again, she finds herself wishing Bernard had been there to just share this fresh hell.

Back when she’d been younger, during a time when she did think about Bernard a great deal more than she did now, Allison had been eager to learn as much about her brother as possible and her dad had never been too busy to tell her all about Bernard, and together they would sit and watch through all the home movies with Bernard and her. Allison hasn’t asked about Bernard in years, not since she accepted that he was dead, but she still liked to imagine what he would’ve been like if he’d been brought home.

Allison had pictured her brother’s nature in various ways, sometimes he was reserved and calm the way their parents were, sometimes he was cheerful and energetic, but often she’d imagined him to strong in the way she could always rely on him not matter what, she’d imagined Bernard to be funny and nice, above else she preferred to imagine that they would’ve been each-others best friends.

Even now as Allison made her way to class, Allison imagined her brother would’ve at least pretended to be a lot less nervous than she was, and that he would’ve attempted to make her laugh in hopes of removing some of her nervousness, she liked to think she would’ve believed Bernard if he told her things would be fine.

Walking into her first-class of the day all eyes are on her immediately on her even without her teacher introducing her as a new student, and she freezes for a moment which isn’t uncommon when she sees one too many judgemental eyes on her, and she can barely hear a word that the teacher says when suddenly the sound of a heavy book hitting the floor disrupts her moment of panic and startles the attention of everyone else towards a boy that looks oddly familiar to her.

Allison can’t put her finger on why the boy who puts on the words attempt at an expression of innocence, instead the expression is a rather comical one as are the flailing limbs as the boy hurries to collect his book, all the while apologizing profusely for the loudness of his book before scolding said book for behaving badly, causing people to outright laugh at his antics while others call him stupid and a loser, to Allison this boy who wasn’t exactly dress to impress and who’s skin was unusually pale was a hero and so she smiled at the scrawny kid gratefully; her smile visibly surprises the boy addressed as Stilinski by the teacher and some of their less than kind classmates, but eventually the stunned expression is replaced with one of beaming pride and joy.

The cute boy who sat behind Stilinski beamed up at her as she made her way past him, and Allison felt her cheeks grow warm as she looked into the kind and happy eyes of the boy who’d been talking to Stilinski and she can’t help but smile with a degree of shyness at him, butterflies taking flight inside her as their eyes connect and the boy smiles even more brighter at her.

_Maybe_, Allison thinks, _maybe Beacon Hills High School isn’t going to be too bad. _

The feeling of people not being all that terrible at Beacon Hills High School grows when she’s forced to ask to borrow a pen from the cute guy with kind-eyes, and the guy just hands her one of his pens and tells her she can keep it before asking if she needed anything else before introducing himself with the eagerness of a happily little puppy as Scott McCall.

**~*~**

With Lydia Martin’s help, the strawberry-blond who’d declared herself Allison’s best friend as they hurried out of their first-class and heading to their next class, Allison managed to navigate her way through her first-day at Beacon Hill’s High School easily enough and learned about various different people, but there was one thing Lydia couldn’t really help her with and that was why exactly Allison thought Stiles Stilinski looked familiar to her.

_He is rather plain-looking, maybe that’s why?_ Lydia had suggested, but Allison had a feeling that wasn’t the real reason why her attention kept drifting between her new friends as well as Scott McCall to Stiles Stilinski, the town Sheriff’s only child.

Allison continued to struggle with understanding why she felt that she knew Stiles Stilinski, it’s an annoying feeling since it just wouldn’t leave her alone as she went through the school day, distracted mercilessly by this strange feeling that haunted her. Allison had been ready to ask Stiles a lot of questions when he came to talk to her after School as she sat waiting for her dad to come and pick her up, but their conversation was all about his best friend who according to Stiles was an awesome guy and who really liked her, and well, Allison liked Scott enough to agree to take Scott’s number and give Stiles her number to give it to Scott; she’d never seen anyone look as happy and excited as Stiles did when she agreed to give his best friend a chance, and she couldn’t help but think Stiles wasn’t as bad as Lydia’s boyfriend Jackson insisted he was.

It’s not until having dinner with her parents, talking about her day while faced with the empty space at the table that was never occupied by anyone, that Allison suddenly realizes why Stiles Stilinski looks so familiar to her and it’s enough of a shock to cause her to drop her fork.

`Oh my God. ´ Allison breathes out, feeling a peculiar sense of amusement settle inside her.

`Allison? ´ her mother questions, frowning at her and the dropped fork, quirking an eyebrow when Allison starts to laugh as she feels freed from the annoying question of why Stiles had seemed to familiar to her.

`It’s nothing. ´ Allison laughs before apologizing for the mess she’d made by dropping her fork.

`Are you sure? ´ her father questions while watching her like he knew she was hiding something.

`Yeah. It’s really nothing. ´ Allison insists, she hasn’t forgotten all the times her father thought that a boy they’d seen at the park or the store or at the gas station was Bernard, and she really didn’t want him to go running off to make a fool of himself or their family.

`Hmm, if you say so. ´ her mother says then, but Allison knows her mother knows that something is up, and as Allison thinks about it for a moment it might be better to tell her parents about Stiles before her mother started digging or her dad saw him and did something stupid.

With a sigh and playing with her food a little, and hoping really hard that her dad wouldn’t make her life at Beacon Hills difficult, she really didn’t need to be known again as the girl with the crazy-father.

`It’s just, the boy I told you about, the one with the book. ´ Allison starts, feeling incredibly nervous.

`The Sheriff son. ´ her mother hums, and Allison nods at this.

`I just – I just thought he looked really familiar. ´ Allison tells her parents, holding on to her fork like a lifeline while begging to all that was holy that the years his dad had spent in therapy had worked some form of magic on her father, something that would prevent her dad from starting to stalk the best friend of the boy she liked, `and I just realized why that is. ´

`Oh? ´ her dad says then, all amused and interested at the same time, then chuckling softly, ` A celebrity or a Muppet? ´

`Neither. ´ Allison responds truthfully while picking at her food, wishing not for the first-time that someone would’ve found Bernard’s remains by now so that there would’ve been a grave her dad could visit, so that her father could have the closure that was denied by his stubbornness to liv with a fragile hope that Bernard was alive.

`Someone we know, then. ´ her mother concludes, there’s a small and amused smile pulling at her lips before she ventures a guess, , `A younger version of your grandfather? ´ Allison feels her face scrunch-up at the suggestion, she couldn’t even imagine that her grandfather had ever been young or funny for that matter.

`Not Gerard then. ´ her mother says with an air about her that told Allison her mother wouldn’t stop guessing anytime soon, `Perhaps a male version of Kate? ´

`No. ´ Allison answers, breathing in slowly once before just dropping the uneasy bomb of who the boy had reminded her of. 

`He looks - just a little bit - like Bernard. ´ as soon as she’s said it the mood shifts in the room, and Allison finds herself regretting saying anything immediately.

Her mother sits all stiff and uncomfortable at the table, holding her breath and watching her husband with a look with alarm. Her father isn’t breathing either, and he’s gone completely still with eyes-wide and for a moment she sees that terrible flicker of hope in his eyes, which pushes her to break the intense silence that had fallen between them.

To say that Allison wanted to back-peddle the hell out of the subject that clearly struck both her parents hard would be an understatement, because Allison’s would’ve gladly surrendered her kidney if it meant she could erase the moment she brought Bernard up. Allison doesn’t really understand what possessed her to think bringing Bernard up in any way would be a good idea, Bernard always caused the so-called adults in her family to argue. 

`But Stiles isn’t Bernard, obviously. ´ Allison starts anxiously, and almost pleadingly she continues, `He’s the son of the towns Sheriff, so he can’t be Bernard. ´ Allison wishes this would be enough of a reason to deter the thoughts that had been sparked inside of her father, but she doubts they are enough and so she pulls out her phone and searches Stiles’ Facebook page for any picture of him, but there’s only one and it’s one featuring Scott.

`And, Stiles really doesn’t look like one of those aged-up pictures of Bernard. ´ she hurriedly tells her dad, before showing him the good picture of Scott and Stiles who were both trying to look all cool while standing next to Stiles’ Jeep, but both appearing more ridiculous than cool, still Scott looked cute as always. 

`See, he really doesn’t look like Bernard, ´ Allison points out almost desperately, looking to her mother for some help, but her mother seemed as lost to what to do as Allison was.

`I’m sure my brain just thought they looked similar because, ´ Allison starts, grasping at the only straw that felt plausible, ` because I was thinking of Bernard before walking into class. ´ and now that Allison has said it, it does seem like the most reasonable reason why she’d thought Stiles looked familiar; there had been a time when she’d thought that every boy she came across with brown eyes and a certain-type of brown hair was her brother, and obviously none of them were her brother just like Stiles wasn’t.

`Considering he is the son of the Sheriff, ´ her mother says, finally breaking the uneasy silence into which she had fallen, and as she rises to her feet and crossing the distance between herself and her husband, she continues calmly and sanely enough, ` I doubt that this boy can be our Bernard. ´

Allison nods in agreement, because of course the town Sheriff’s son couldn’t be her brother, that would be insane.

`Christopher, the boy isn’t our son. ´ her mother insists softly and almost pityingly while coming to stand behind her husband who stared down at the image on Allison’s phone, she begins to gently rub the tense shoulders of Allison’s father as she gives the image a good look.

` Christopher, that’s not my son. ´ her mother says after a short pause, and for a moment Allison thinks her mother had briefly hoped it would’ve been Bernard, it’s just something about her mother’s voice that sparks this thought in Allison’s mind.

`That is not my son. ´ her mother repeats, a little bit more firmly now, `Allison is right, it was just a trick of her brain. ´

It takes her mother repeating her judgement a few more times before her father finally agrees that they are right, and with an apology Allison is handed her phone back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh Lord how I struggled to the ideas in my head down into words and forged those words into something good. 
> 
> Anyways, so in my head, later that night, when everyone is a sleep. Chris heads back downstairs to his office, and looks through those aged-up pictures of Bernard and then goes to check on those pictures Allison showed him, and as he does he notices he's got mail and not just any mail, but the latest rendering of an aged-up Bernard by this lady that one of the parents at the support group for parents of missing children, a parent who finally learned what had happened to their kid because of the aged-up image this person had made, and sure Chris had to pay a nice sum of money for something that might just mirror the pictures of Bernard he already has. Chris gives another look at a set of pictures of the Sheriff's kid, who has been haunting his thoughts since Allison showed him the picture of the boy, he's not sure what it is about this boy that makes it impossible for him to not start digging. When Chris finally checks the message sent by the peculiar woman he'd paid possibly way too much, the woman apologize for taking so long before explaining she'd struggled with creating a 16 Year old Bernard since the pictures she had of the boy were of a such a young child, but she'd done her best and followed her gut instinct more than she usually did, going as far as to say, write "I think you're right not to lose faith, Mr. Argent. I've got a feeling, he's out there, alive. Good luck in finding your son " and Chris might pour himself a glass of whiskey as he waits for the images of Bernie this lady has made, but before he's able to swallow his first-sip a familiar face appears, and Chris is so shocked by the image of the boy called Stiles Stilinski.

**Author's Note:**

> Alright, so Claudia Stilinski is the crazy woman who took Bernard, she wanted a child so badly she took him. She was moving to a new town, to start a new life, when she’d gone to the park and she’d seen Victoria a couple of times at the park before, she’d watched her with her twins and noticed how unbalanced Victoria’s display of affection and attention was with the twins, and Claudia just thought that she could love the little boy more than Victoria ever would, and so when no one was paying attention she took the boy; and because her baby boy didn’t fight her or cry, but was so enthralled by her necklace, it was like God wanted her to take the boy. 
> 
> Now, when Claudia took the boy, she and the Sheriff weren’t together yet, and it’s only a year or two later that they reunite when she moves to Beacon Hills with her son, they used to high-school sweethearts and were together for about a year after Claudia went to college and he joined the army, and the spark is still there and so almost immediately they start dating. By the time Claudia and the Sheriff get back together again, Mieczyslaw has already started to see and believe Claudia is his mom, and because he believes his daddy didn’t want him and is pretty much in awe of the Sheriff, he’s excited and happy about all the attention the man gives him; and every-single-night before he Claudia puts him to bed, they’d wished together very hard that one day the Sheriff will want to be Mieczyslaw’s daddy. 
> 
> To the Sheriff Claudia pretty much lies about how she became a mother, telling him she doesn’t know who his dad is, since she’d met him at a New Years Eve party of a friend of hers, and tells Sheriff she’s obviously never told her son that because she doesn’t want him to think badly of her, and Stilinski is sympathetic about it and doesn’t judge her for a second. The Sheriff doesn’t have a reason not to believe what Claudia tells him, after all she was such a good girl back in the day, the sort who would never do anything illegal like abduct a child and get him fake birth-certificates, not to mention a new social security number. 
> 
> I'd like to think that one day the Argents are reunited with their lost son, and Allison gets her brother back. Maybe the Argents move to Beacon Hills, and the moment Allison sees Stiles she's struck by how much he looks like the aged-up pictures her dad has of Bernard but like her mother she's accepted that the person who took her brother had killed him; still, she can't help but tell her parents over dinner about Stiles, and how much he looks like Bernard, going as far as to show them a couple of pictures of him on Facebook and while Victoria thinks it's nothing, Chris gets stuck on the fact that this boy looks so much like the pictures he has. The hair might be wrong, the skin is too pale, there are moles and the nose is a bit different but it's still enough to push hope into his heart. He starts to try and learn as much about the Stilinski's as possible, but then as luck would have it, Stiles ends-up as Allison's are signed to work together on a book report or whatever and when Chris comes home there's the kid in his house, laughing and talking with Allison and Victoria; Chris just knows, just knows somehow that this boy is his son, but he's no crazy enough to run up to the boy and hug him and never let him go again, instead he is sneaky and pretends there's a bug in Stiles' hair and rips a few hairs off of Stiles' head. 
> 
> It's a nervous wait, the weeks it takes for the results to come back is almost as hellish as the years have been after Bernard was taken. When the results are in, Chris just loses it, he cries tears of joy and can hardly speak enough to tell his wife that their son is alive, that they've had dinner with their son more than once now.


End file.
